# Ronald Howard smoked a pipe...



## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

He really knew how to smoke a pipe, it seems. Watching "The Case of Lady Beryl" last night, from the 1954 series, *Sherlock Holmes*, Howard puffs for minutes at a time, in several scenes, on a nice full bent billiard -- and he knows what he's doing! No relights, no clouds of smoke...almost certainly a pipe smoker in real life, if I had to guess.

Mycroft Holmes generously sent me a stack of DVDs of the series a while back and I've been gradually watching my way through them. Last night, a friend came over who had never seen the series, we watched a few and he thought they were fantastic. He had spent some time in London in the service and become an Anglophile of the first rank. He loved the "Limeyness". :lol:

Anyhow, Ronald Howard remains one of my favorite Sherlocks. Perhaps not as authentic as Jeremy Brett (the series was, for the most part, all new stories not written by Sir Arthur) and not nearly as severe a character as the original, but Howard's Sherlock is eminently enjoyable nonetheless. In a head to head slow smoke between Brett and Howard, smart money is on Howard. And H. Marion Crawford's Watson is superior as well -- also knowing how to smoke his pipe!

Thanks, Mycroft! Golf is almost done and I'll be finishing these up with the falling leaves. :tu


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## quo155 (Aug 10, 2010)

Now you have me interested in the series...of which I have never seen!

Great story!


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## Zeabed (Apr 23, 2009)

His father, the great Leslie Howard, also smoked a pipe in real life, and in the movie Pygmalion.


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## CWL (Mar 25, 2010)

How come I keep thinking of Little Opie?


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## quo155 (Aug 10, 2010)

CWL said:


> How come I keep thinking of Little Opie?


Me too...I thought that was what this was about...then I went digging and saw there was no relation! This has really sparked my interest in the series...are they ever on cable?

Now, on Ron Howard...as in Opie...The Andy Griffith Show is by far my favorite TV Series...of all time!


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

quo155 said:


> Me too...I thought that was what this was about...then I went digging and saw there was no relation! This has really sparked my interest in the series...are they ever on cable?


I've seen a couple of episodes here and there, but I always seem to catch the last episode when they had been carrying a series. Typical. Wouldn't surprise me to see them pop up somewhere. Obviously, they're on DVD.


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## GuitarDan (Nov 26, 2009)

Forgive this mini-hijacking...
For me, there is only one actor for Sherlock Holmes... Peter Cushing.
Sheryl's Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes Page 2
Nuno Miranda's Original Film Props Collection: Peter Cushing's Pipes


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## Zogg (Aug 31, 2010)

that or at least someone on set/production smoked a pipe and showed him how/edited it to look correct! XD


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

Zogg said:


> that or at least someone on set/production smoked a pipe and showed him how/edited it to look correct! XD


Easier said than done, I think. Occam's razor points to him smoking one frequently. A lot of pipe smoking went down in the '50s, after all. These days, it's so rare that one would be more suspicious.

Robert Downy, Jr. does not look convincing with a pipe for instance. It was like watching Kevin Costner pretending he has a great golf swing or the ten million actors who've faked playing the piano or guitar. Close, just not quite right.

Possibly he was a very good actor who could pull it off despite being an anti-tobacco Nazi, but I really couldn't say. I'm going for the ol' willing suspension of disbelief; until proven otherwise, I will truculently maintain that Ronald Howard smoked a pipe for real. :fencing:


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## indigosmoke (Sep 1, 2009)

I'm with Jim on this one. I've seen a few pictures of him with a pipe when he wasn't playing Holmes. Who knows, maybe he started smoking a pipe playing Holmes and found he liked it! My vote still goes to Brett for my favorite Holmes, however. BTW - Mycroft also sent me a great Sherlock Holmes care package a while back.

http://www.cigarforums.net/forums/v...283428-we-have-victorian-bomber-among-us.html

He's a great BOTL.


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

indigosmoke said:


> I'm with Jim on this one. I've seen a few pictures of him with a pipe when he wasn't playing Holmes. Who knows, maybe he started smoking a pipe playing Holmes and found he liked it! My vote still goes to Brett for my favorite Holmes, however. BTW - Mycroft also sent me a great Sherlock Holmes care package a while back.
> 
> http://www.cigarforums.net/forums/v...283428-we-have-victorian-bomber-among-us.html
> 
> He's a great BOTL.


I'll second Brett as the best Holmes. :tu Howard's happy Holmes has a lot of humor in the character, not at all like the manic depressive Holmes that Conan Doyle invented. :lol:

And now I feel like such an ingrate.  I must needs remedy my oversight and make amends with a proper public thank you. I appreciate that link!

Stay tuned.

PS. Mycroft knows his brother Sherlock better than any of us, take my word for it! :bowdown:


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

I will send Sather a link to this thread, rather than starting a new one, but following Indigosmoke's example, I thought I'd post pictures of Mycroft's bomb he dropped on me. I had to peel myself off the wall upon discovering that he had sent me:




























The back of the third Sherlock is blurry, so I didn't post it, but you can just make out the titles on the other two. The fourth DVD is the first season of a new BBC Sherlock series, which Mycroft claims is excellent. My guess he's right! Starting to find a little time, now that summer's winding down, to watch these. Really looking forward to it!

I am a bit more than halfway through the book and really liking that too! They've really caught the style of the original stories. Amazing well, actually.

I have been plotting my revenge, but things have been so busy of late, ya know? What comes around goes around. :hippie:


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## Herf N Turf (Dec 31, 2008)

I know I'm a curmudgeon, but I'm blissfully resigned to it. I grew up with Basil Rathbone and there it remains for me.

Basil Rathbone will always be Sherlock Holmes.
Sean Connery will always be James Bond.
Adam West will always be Batman.
William Shatner will always be Captain of the Enterprise.
Donald Sutherland will always be Hawkeye Pierce.
Graham Chapman will always be King Arthur.
Charlton Heston IS Moses!


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

Herf N Turf said:


> I know I'm a curmudgeon, but I'm blissfully resigned to it. I grew up with Basil Rathbone and there it remains for me.
> 
> Basil Rathbone will always be Sherlock Holmes.
> Sean Connery will always be James Bond.
> ...


While I'm in total agreement with the center group, I could never get past the modern setting of the Rathbone Holmes, nor the nincompoopery of Nigel Bruce. Having read the stories in England before I ever even saw the Rathbone series, it always struck an odd chord to have him driving around in horseless carriages, flying in airplanes or what have you.

As for Heston, I didn't even know he was Jewish!


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## Zeabed (Apr 23, 2009)

I always entertained the opinion that Leslie Howard, would have made a great Sherlock. And although he was Jewish, I don't think he would have made a good Moses. :???:


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## quo155 (Aug 10, 2010)

Zeabed said:


> I always entertained the opinion that Leslie Howard, would have made a great Sherlock. And although he was Jewish, I don't think he would have made a good Moses. :???:


Yea, he's missing a few whiskers and a round head (IMHO...not like I'd know what Moses looked like...) but yes, maybe a good Sherlock.

Great stuff guys and these bombs you are linking to and showing are out of this world!

Great thread...I am leaning a lot..._though I am so young as I was ONLY born in the 70's!_


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## Herf N Turf (Dec 31, 2008)

freestoke said:


> While I'm in total agreement with the center group, I could never get past the modern setting of the Rathbone Holmes, nor the nincompoopery of Nigel Bruce. Having read the stories in England before I ever even saw the Rathbone series, it always struck an odd chord to have him driving around in horseless carriages, flying in airplanes or what have you.
> 
> As for Heston, I didn't even know he was Jewish!


Well, didn't you just have to reference the episodes where in it had wandered too far from the original? I will grant you, in 1930's England, there was a need for recognizable heros to fight the Nazi's and address current concerns. They used everything as propaganda. Rathbone's Holmes was no exception. For the most part, however, I thought it great and, also having read the stories, Rathbone just seemed the "perfect archetypal Holmes" for me.

Sort of how Heston was a waspy presbyterian, yet made the perfect semitic paterfamilias.

I never attempted to make any of my declarations make sense. They are purely impassioned examples held over from childhood fantasy, Jim.


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

Herf N Turf said:


> For the most part, however, I thought it great and, also having read the stories, Rathbone just seemed the "perfect archetypal Holmes" for me.


I'll give you that! Perfect type casting, without a doubt. And he was even like that in real life! An amazing bio. :spy: Now if they could have canned the worst Dr. Watson ever in Nigel Bruce (I wouldn't let that guy near me with a bandaid.) I've watched them all, though, and enjoy them every time one pops up on the tube. I think I've seen them all about 10 times at this point!


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## Nuno Miranda (Sep 14, 2011)

GuitarDan said:


> Forgive this mini-hijacking...
> For me, there is only one actor for Sherlock Holmes... Peter Cushing.
> LINKS


Thx for the mention, or I wouldn't have discovered this excellent forum of pipes fans. I'd alike to add that I've recebtly screen-matched two of the pipes in this collection I purchased, one from the 1968 BBC Sherlock series and another from the 'Hound of the Baskervilles' film with Cushing. The others I haven't matched yet, and would dearly appreciate any help from forum members, if you've spotted them. I suspect they might have been used in the lost episodes of the BBC series. The pipes used by Cushing were made especially for the production and Cushing then kept them as a souvenir.

Wanted to post links, but it seems the site won't let me, which is a bit baffling. Please visit "mondoprop.blogspot.com" and check the left-hand bar and click on the "Peter Cushing" entry, and the two pipes will show up 

Cheers from Lisbon!
-Nuno


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

Nuno Miranda said:


> Thx for the mention, or I wouldn't have discovered this excellent forum of pipes fans. I'd alike to add that I've recebtly screen-matched two of the pipes in this collection I purchased, one from the 1968 BBC Sherlock series and another from the 'Hound of the Baskervilles' film with Cushing. The others I haven't matched yet, and would dearly appreciate any help from forum members, if you've spotted them. I suspect they might have been used in the lost episodes of the BBC series. The pipes used by Cushing were made especially for the production and Cushing then kept them as a souvenir.
> 
> Wanted to post links, but it seems the site won't let me, which is a bit baffling. Please visit "mondoprop.blogspot.com" and check the left-hand bar and click on the "Peter Cushing" entry, and the two pipes will show up
> 
> ...


Interesting pursuit, Nuno! I'm no help at all with the pipes, but the image posting problem is merely one of elapsed time after registration and enough posts.

Like guessing the number of jelly beans in the pickle jar, but I'd say Howard is smoking a Dunhill in the scene I described at the start. If he really smoked a pipe, he'd smoke something like a Dunhill -- might even have been one of his own! Maybe I'll go back and see if there's a white dot on the stem!


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